City of Glasgow Swim Team

Mums and dads, this one is for you.

As parents and coaches we all fall prey to the constant griping that a large percentage of today’s youth is, for lack of a better word, irresponsible. Responsibility is one character trait that will ultimately determine just how much success your child finds in the pool, in the classroom and later on in the big world.

As coaches, we are constantly building upon previous training in an effort to develop great swimmers. As parents, I believe we can apply the same type of progressive lessons when it comes to responsibility.

A little over five years ago a mother stopped me after a workout and asked me a question about her son, who was to swim in an upcoming meet.

“Did he ask you if he could swim the 200 free,” she asked.

“No, he did not,” I said.

She then replied, “Well, I guess he doesn’t want to swim it that badly,” and walked away.

At first I thought this was a little harsh, since the boy was only 7 years old at the time. But now when I look back, I can recognize what a valuable lesson she taught her son by not doing something that he could do for himself.

Nowadays, he continues to take full responsibility for his swimming and understands that he is in total control of his successes and failures. And he continues to be one of the easiest kids to coach.

So the next time you and your swimmer are headed off to swim practice, and you reach down to pick up their swim bag, ask yourself “is this helping my child learn to be responsible?”

Original article here

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